Sound Science Bite: April 4. The 15 March 2013 issue of the journal
"Science"
contains an article in its Perspectives section that discusses an often
overlooked effect as humans consume more resources on a finite planet. You hear
from time to time concerns about this consumption and how we need to
moderate it until, at the least, consumption ceases to grow. The aim is to reduce
environmental damage associated with this consumption. In this article,
Debra Davidson and
Jeffrey Andrews point out, however, that as resources become more and more
scarce, environmental damage will grow even if consumption were held steady.
In particular, as hydrocarbon fuels become more and more difficult to find and
extract, enviromental damage will grow due to that extraction and to longer
transport as fuel sources become more remote. Hence, not
only does the growth of consumption degrade the environment, but the
environmental cost of the consumption per unit extracted goes up as well. This
problem applies equally to other resources, such as ores and arable land.

The conclusions of this article are strongly in accord with the second law of
thermodynamics in physics, which says that in a closed system the amount of
usable energy diminishes until it becomes zero. The Earth is not a closed system
as far as energy is concerned, since we get energy from the Sun and radiate
heat energy back to space due to the fact space is much colder than the Earth.
(Heat flows from warm to cold.) However, this law applies to matter as well; for
example recall
the well-known statement that it is much easier to scramble an egg than
to unscramble it. With respect to matter, the Earth is virtually a closed
system. The second law says that without using energy (ultimately from renewable
sources) to "unscramble" our eggs (that is, using recycling and reprocessing
instead of one-time
consumption), we will eventually have no eggs to scramble. All our former
resources will be impossible to reclaim. For more on this
read my article
The
Heat Death of Civilization.